Slothpop Isn't Slouching

Indianapolis Indie ensemble takes hold of imagination and ambition

Around the summer of 2009, Kristin Newborn launched
Slothpop as a planned “side project” in which she was joined by Dan
Zender and Lauren Eison. The band's name was a nod to “Sloth,” a
nickname Newborn earned for her admitted predilection for doing things
at a laid-back pace. Slothpop would not stay an occasional distraction
for long. ---

Today, it's full-fledged Indianapolis-based band that
includes Newborn (on vocals, guitar and piano), Eison (vocals and
violin), Zender (guitar), Bryan Unruh (drums and percussion), Jeff Vyain
(cello) and Drew Malott (bass and vocals). The group's self-titled
debut record was released at the beginning of January. Although Slothpop
really hasn't been a band for very long, they play and write with
seasoned prowess.

“I had this (band) envisioned as songs that I wrote years
ago and I wanted to make something of ’em,” Newborn says, talking via
speakerphone as her band congregates pre-practice on a Monday night. “We
just got together and started to put them together and work our own
colors in. After that happened, we started writing as a band and that
worked amazingly. Probably my favorite songs now are the ones we created
as a full band.”

At its most basic, Slothpop's sound is restrained Indie
Pop. The arrangements are tempered and utilitarian in design, the
melodies are sweetly sonorous but not overbearing and instruments move
in and out with clockwork care. Nothing sounds like it was spawned on
the fly. The overarching minimalism also means that you have to dig
around for nuance and listen intently to soak it in. Slothpop's sound
tends to not come to you; you have to get closer to it.

Even with that interest in precision, the band’s sound
never feels lifeless.

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Slothpop's most prominent tool is Newborn's voice —
a multi-hued, breathy thing that resembles the voices of Regina Spektor
and Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis. Newborn can keep her tone slow and bare,
ratchet it up to where it’s on the verge of a warble or lean in on her
voice like it's almost about to crack and pull back at the last moment.
Eison is a nimble vocal complement, one that's especially good for
harmonizing. Instrumentally, all the strings shine, retaining a clean
glow. Distortion and feedback are akin to ghosts.

Over the handful of press published over Slothpop's young
career, “dreamy” and other variations of the word frequently pop up in
descriptions. There's definite merit to that idea, as the sextet's work
is kind enough to cradle you and make you a feel bit mischievous, but
it's not exactly going to toss you into nightmare territory. Amusingly,
“Leaping Over Books,” one of the songs on Slothpop,was
directly inspired by a dream had by Newborn. It involved various books,
leaping over huge objects, a gray city, waiting in line and posters with
images of herself on them.

“I don't really remember my dreams all that much,” she says, “but when I do, I try to create something out of it.”

In keeping with the idea of this dream taking up its own
track, bassist Malott explains that the band attempts to
compartmentalize each song into a separate zone.

“'Kokoro' is its own genre. 'Sailing Bird!' is its own
genre, so in each song, we would try to put ourselves in the world that
the band was creating before I joined it,” he says. “The first thing
that happens on the record (on “One”) is a really mellow cello note and
then a vocal with no guitar. That's the world happening on that song.”

Eison adds that the group also tries to capture the moods of moments by visualizing them.

“There's multiple times when we'll be writing a song and
we're trying to think of a part and we'll be like, 'Well, you're in a
forest, then you jump off a cliff and jump into the water, and this is what it feels like at that moment,' ” she says. “We create scenarios within our songs.”

While assembling “Joker,” Eison adds, Newborn told her
bandmates to imagine the ending of the song as a building being
demolished and walls crumbling. The final product is similar to that
description, with a climax featuring instruments that grow louder and
less restrained (even if they never wholly lose control).

Despite only having a year and a half behind them,
Slothpop's work is tuneful and smart enough to hold legitimate potential
for breakout success. Newborn notes that there have been a few changes
for the band in that span, too.

“We used to be considered the most quiet band in
Indianapolis, but now we're a little loud,” she says. “The way we can
come into a practice and just start jamming out comes so easily now. We
all have really great chemistry and have developed a close relationship
outside of music. We're just going to keep going forward, I guess.
That's all we can do.”

SLOTHPOP plays a free show 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at MOTR Pub in Over-the-Rhine.